Jo's Icelandic Recipes has moved here (the old website is still up but I have stopped updating it). Covers recipes, Icelandic foodstuffs, food culture and history. Please post questions under the appropriate recipe. If there is an Icelandic recipe you're looking for, you can either leave a comment or email me (see sidebar) with a request and I'll see what I can do.
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13/04/2007

While searching the web for a recipe, I came across a website which should prove a very useful resource for anyone who is preparing a visit to Iceland and wants to shop for food in the local stores (no need to worry about reading menus - they are usually provided in at least English and sometimes more languages). Following the general outline of Icelandic food (in English), there is a handy table of many kinds of food, given in Icelandic, English, French, German and Swedish:

01/04/2007

This is an acquired taste, much like Finnan Haddie, which is also a traditional Icelandic way of preserving haddock, only we call it reykt ýsa (smoked haddock). Because haddock does not take well to salting like it cousin, the cod, it is usually either smoked or "hung" when it needs preserving.

Take one haddock, approx. 1 to 1 1/2 kilo, and remove the head and guts, or ask the fishmonger to do it for you. Do not scrape off the slime.

This is best done in cold but not frosty weather. Hang the fish in the shade for anything from 12-20 days, depending on how big the fish is and how strong you want the flavour to be. Take care not to dry it completely, because then you have made stockfish which requires soaking if you plan to cook it or much beating if you want to eat it raw. Hung haddock should be firm but not dry.

Before cooking, remove the tail and fins and tear off the skin. Cut into pieces and drop into boiling salted water and cook for about 10 minutes. Serve with plain boiled potatoes and butter or tallow, or, if you can get it, the fat that melts from hangikjöt when it is cooked. Also good served with bechamel (white) sauce.

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Please don't send me any more requests to ask the cook for a recipe for food you tried at an Icelandic restaurant. The cooks are never, ever willing to part with the recipes, and most of the time I can't even begin to guess what it tasted like without actually going there and ordering it for myself. If you know or suspect it was something traditional, please do go ahead and ask, but don't expect me to call the restaurant to ask for a recipe. I am not a trained chef and I rely on my knowledge of traditional Icelandic home cooking and my collection of recipe books to write this blog.

Here is my e-mail address. For security reasons (i.e. I hate spam) I am not posting a live link. All you have to do is replace the X in the address with the @ sign, and the Z with a full stop. I am not trying to make things difficult for people who honestly want to contact me with questions about Icelandic food, but I want to make it hard for spammers to acquire my e-mail address.I often don't check my e-mail on weekends, and sometimes I take a week or more to answer e-mails I get, so please have patience.